Budgets tend to allot cash for everything that we spend in a month. While a zero-sum budget is fantastic, it also helps to create a bare bones budget at the same time. You can then compare between the two.

Among the many articles on budgeting systems and strategies, there has been very little written on…
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As personal finance blog Cashville Skyline explains, you can actually separate out your monthly expenditures into three categories: essential, negotiable, and non-essential. The essential bills like rent and basic utilities make up your bare bones budget. Everything after that can be examined separately:

Of course, everyone's budget will be different, but calculating your own essentials-only expenses gives you a sense of how low you can really go. This can particularly come in handy if you find yourself without income for a period of time and need to cut back.